We’ve written previously here at Variety 
about the growing importance of digital SLR cameras to Hollywood. Indie filmmakers use them to shoot on a budget and bigger budget content producers use ’em to help cut costs (like “Saturday Night Live,” which shoots its opening credits with a DSLR).
Now Nikon is adding some new features to better compete with Canon, which has had the lead among film makers for a while.
Technology is keeping Hollywood on its toes: Just 
when studios have gotten used to Netflix reinventing the homevideo biz and are flirting with becoming a major player in the pay-TV biz, it’s time for networks to face a very near future when Apple’s iPad and rival tablet computers steal more eyes away from TV sets.
Verizon is about to offer up the latest carrot for consumers, with the telco giant announcing plans Wednesday for an upcoming app that will let its FiOS TV customers stream television and on-demand programming to the iPad.
Verizon has big plans for the tablet marketplace – 
maybe bigger than they’re willing to talk about right now.
The telecom giant held a press conference Wednesday showing off an app that would stream live television and on-demand programming to the iPad for FiOS customers. The application, which also allows customers to see which shows are most popular with viewers in real-time, is expected to be available next year.
When Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 motion sensor 
controller that’s now known as Kinect, the demo that had everyone talking was Peter Molyneux’s “Milo”. Shown in a video (and, later, via a select number of live demonstrations), the onscreen 11-year old boy interacted and chatted with a human player and showed remarkable artificial intelligence.
Milo’s been silent since then, but Molyneux brought him back out recently at the TED conference. A video of his presentation at that event has just been released and it’s worth 10 minutes of your time.
As Microsoft has leaked out details of its upcoming Windows 
Phone 7 series, it has been pretty obviouthat the company planned to borrow heavily from its successful Xbox Live formula. Now it’s sharing more details – and it’s looking a lot more like a semi-complete integration of the service, rather than just a few elements.
The new phones will launch with Xbox Live integration, letting owners stay connected with their gaming friends when they’re away from their consoles. They’ll also be able to access leaderboards, turn-based multiplayer games, Achievements and more.
Panasonic has been one of the biggest (and loudest) 
supporters of the 3D TV market. Now it’s ratcheting things up a bit more.
The company has introduced another pair of 3D sets – the first by Panny to offer 2D to 3D conversion, which substantially increases the library of content. (It also brings the company in parallel with Sony and Samsung, which offer the technology.)
On a recent July day in Paris, game developer Dustin Browder 
was living like an international rock star, doling out autographs and chatting with fans.
The lead designer on Activision-Blizzard’s “Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty,” one of the most anticipated vidgame titles of the year, was in the City of Light for one of many midnight launches held worldwide for the game. Nearly 1,500 people showed up in the rain there to buy the game the instant it went on sale, July 22, and to get Browder to sign their copy.
When it comes to electronics, as Japan goes, so goes the 
rest of the world.
Well, sometimes, at least.
The Nikkei, Japan’s largest business paper, took a look at the state of 3D TV in that country – and the information it gathered could be indicative of trends that are on the way to other territories.
Those hoping the video game industry could turn 
around its fortunes in July got their wishes – sort of. Sales of video game software were down 8 percent last month to $403.3 million. The industry as a whole was off 1 percent to $846.5 million.
Those numbers, however, did not include sales of “Starcraft II,” which was a PC-exclusive title. (NPD’s monthly numbers only track console sales.) Combined sales of PC and console games were actually up 4 percent over the 2009 numbers.
After three years of silence, Irrational Games, the studio behind 
“Bioshock” has taken the wraps off of its next game. The studio today unveiled “Bioshock Infinite,” a new installment in the franchise that upends many gamer perceptions about the franchise.
The original title, which sold over 4 million units worldwide, was set in Rapture, an crumbling aquatic world. “Bioshock Infinite” is set above the clouds in Columbia, a floating city that mixes the “Star Wars’” cloud planet of Bespin with a steam punk sensibility. The game is set for a 2012 release and will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Read more (and see the trailer) at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Chris Morris: Journalist 